Nowadays, the consumer has plenty of choice of beverages to which one or more additives have been added to provide the beverage with an added value. These are, for instance, sports drinks, health drinks, neutraceuticals, cosmeceuticals or functional foods. This nearly always involves a beverage which is produced and offered in a standard composition. These beverages are nearly all based on water to which the additives have already been added. In order to facilitate consumption, these beverages are prepackaged in drinking bottles, i.e. bottles where the consumer can consume the beverage directly from the bottle and whose contents are intended to be drunk within a period of time of a few minutes or a few hours. In order to facilitate drinking, the drinking bottle may then be provided with a special drinking cap from which one can drink, such as for instance a push-pull cap.
In practice, the consumer needs to purchase a new drinking bottle filled with beverage each time.
A drawback thereof is that each time providing a new drinking bottle and cap increases the costs of the beverage, and has an environmental impact. Further, a drawback of prepackaging a beverage in drinking bottles in this manner is that the distribution is relatively inefficient because relatively much water and relatively many packagings are transported. Further, the beverage prepackaged in drinking bottles takes up much space in storage and at the location where the beverage is offered to the consumer. These aspects also increase the cost price of the beverage.
As an alternative for consuming a prepackaged beverage from drinking bottles, it is possible to add additives to the beverage prior to drinking; for instance, there are syrups to make lemonade and there are effervescent tablets to make a vitamin drink. Typically, then the beverage is not consumed from a drinking bottle, but from a cup. A drawback of this method is that, compared to consuming a prepackaged beverage from a drinking bottle, adding the correct dose prior to drinking is relatively laborious and complex.
Further, certain additives do no not dissolve easily and they form a precipitate on the beverage container. In addition, a drawback of prepackaged beverages and syrups is that relatively many colorings, aromatic substances and preservatives need to be provided to make the product look well and to be able to keep it well. Also, many beverages are relatively acid in connection with the shelf life, so that beverages need to be sweetened strongly. This sweetening is less desirable for one's health.